Joint Effects of Perceived Hazard Risk and Contextual Situation on Responses

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between risk perception and evacuation behavior, and the sociospatial contexts that affect evacuation. It is argued that risk perception and contextual conditions have a joint effect on evacuation. Data were collected from 3,756 evacuees in sixteen cities and towns affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake off the Pacific coast. Using geographic information systems (GIS), data from questionnaires on risk perception and activity diary surveys on behavioral response were combined with geospatial data. The main finding was that high risk perception leads to evacuation behavior, but that the difference between immediate and delayed evacuation depends on the sociospatial context. Delayed evacuation, compared with immediate evacuation, tends to occur in the following contexts: (1) the physical context (e.g., being inland at the time of the disaster impact); (2) the household context (e.g., the need to confirm the safety of household members); and (3) the social context (e.g., the need for assistance with mobility). This study extends the literature on disaster science and cognitive-behavioral geography by considering the relationship between perception and behavior in urban spaces in emergencies. The findings are relevant to the development of disaster preparedness planning to minimize human losses.

本文研究了风险感知与疏散行为之间的关系, 以及影响疏散的社会空间背景。有人认为, 风险感知和背景条件一起影响了疏散。数据来自于受2011年太平洋沿岸Tohoku地震影响的16个城镇的3,756名撤离人员。使用地理信息系统, 融合了风险感知问卷、行为反应活动日记调查和地理空间数据。对高风险的感知导致了疏散行为, 但立即疏散和延迟疏散之间的差异取决于社会空间背景。与立即疏散相比, 延迟疏散往往发生在以下情况: (1)自然背景(例如, 灾害产生影响时位于内陆)；(2)家庭背景(例如, 需要确认家庭成员的安全)；(3)社会背景(例如, 需要流动性援助)。本文考虑了紧急情况下城市空间内感知和行为的关系, 扩展了灾害科学和认知行为地理学。这些发现有助于制定旨在尽量减少人员损失的防灾规划。

En este estudio se examinó la relación entre la percepción del riesgo y el comportamiento de evacuación, y los contextos socioespaciales que afectan la evacuación. Se argumenta que la percepción del riesgo y las condiciones de contexto tienen un efecto conjunto sobre la evacuación. Al respecto, se recogieron datos de 3.756 evacuados en dieciséis ciudades y pueblos afectados por el terremoto de Tohoku en 2011, sobre la costa del Pacífico. Utilizando sistemas de información geográfica (SIG), datos obtenidos con cuestionarios sobre percepción de riesgo y encuestas, los diarios de actividad sobre respuesta conductual fueron combinados con datos geoespaciales. El principal hallazgo fue que la alta percepción del riesgo conduce a un comportamiento de evacuación, aunque la diferencia entre la evacuación inmediata y la aplazada depende del contexto socioespacial. La evacuación aplazada, en comparación con la inmediata, tiende a ocurrir asociada con los siguientes contextos: (1) el contexto físico (e.g., estar en el interior en el momento del impacto del desastre); (2) el contexto doméstico (e.g., la necesidad de confirmar la seguridad de los miembros del hogar); y (3) el contexto social (e.g., la necesidad de ayuda para la movilidad). Este estudio incrementa la literatura relacionada con la ciencia de los desastres y con la geografía cognitivo-conductual al considerar la relación entre la percepción y la conducta en los espacios urbanos durante las emergencias. Los hallazgos son relevantes en el desarrollo de planes de preparación para enfrentar desastres, para minimizar las pérdidas humanas.

Key Words:

• behavior
• evacuation
• risk perception
• tsunami
• urban structure

关键词:

• 行为
• 疏散
• 风险感知
• 海啸
• 城市结构

Palabras clave:

• comportamiento
• estructura urbana
• evacuación
• percepción del riesgo
• tsunami

Acknowledgments

This article is part of the author’s PhD thesis submitted to the University of Tsukuba in 2022. The author expresses gratitude to Professor Takehiro Morimoto, Professor Emeritus Yuji Murayama, Professor Jun Tsutsumi, and Professor Akio Yamashita for their invaluable guidance and unwavering support. The author would also like to thank Professor Jian Chen at the University of North Alabama for providing valuable feedback at the 2023 American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting in Denver. The survey data are available upon request from the Center for Spatial Information Science at the University of Tokyo (http://fukkou.csis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/). The National Land Numerical Information is freely available (https://nlftp.mlit.go.jp/).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellows under Grants 19J20678 and 22KJ2828.

Notes on contributors

Yuki Iwai

YUKI IWAI is a JSPS Research Fellow in the Department of Geography at Nihon University, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8550. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include environmental perception, spatial behavior, decision-making, mixed methods, and GIScience.